Ukrainian parliament’s decision to recognize the self-proclaimed republics as occupied territories shows that the Kiev government does not want peace in Donbas, LPR parliament speaker says

MOSCOW, March 17 /TASS/. Kiev’s unilateral decision to postpone the entry into force of a decision on Donbas special status until elections are held in the region is contradicting the Minsk agreements, Alexey Karyakin, the parliament speaker of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, told the LuhanskInformCenter news agency on Tuesday.

"The Minsk agreements note the priority of a constitutional reform which should be carried out in Ukraine with participation of the LPR and DPR who should also be involved in drafting a law on elections," Karyakin said adding that Kiev was acting unilaterally.

Ukrainian parliament’s decision to recognize the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) as occupied territories shows that the Kiev government does not want peace in Donbas, he added.

"This decision has proven once again that Kiev does not want peace to establish in these territories," Karyakin told the news agency.

On Kiev’s request to send peacekeepers to Donbas

The adoption of appeals to the United Nations and the European Union to send peacekeepers to the Donbas region by Verkhovna Rada will practically annul the Minsk agreements and could create conditions for the conflict’s new escalation, Alexey Karyakin went on to say.

Kiev should talk to the current leaderships of the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics (LPR and DPR), Karyakin said.

His comment followed remarks by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko who said that the Kiev government would deal exclusively with representatives of Donetsk and Luhansk who would be elected according to Ukrainian laws.

"So long as the process of elections and Ukraine’s constitutional reform are not discussed, there can be no talks about any new bodies of power in the LPR and DPR," LuhanskInformCenter news agency quoted Karyakin as saying. Karyakin said that since the conflict in Donbas was taking place in the present, Kiev should talk "to the people who are defending their rights today."

The "Normandy four" leaders (Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine) and the Contact Group for the Ukraine settlement adopted a package of measures to implement the Minsk agreements on February 12. The 13-point document provides for the introduction of a ceasefire in separate districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as of February 15; pull back heavy weapons from the disengagement line between the Kiev army units and the militias as well as measures on a long-term political settlement in Donbas.